Field
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to techniques for limiting signal storms over a network.
Background
Hotspots allow user equipment (UEs) to access a network via access points (APs) distributed over a geographic area. APs may employ WiFi technology to wirelessly communicate with UEs. Conventionally, user intervention is required for a UE to gain network access via a hotspot. For example, the UE may detect a hotspot and ask the user whether to connect to the detected hotspot. In this case, the user is required to make a decision whether to connect the UE to the hotspot. In addition, the user may be required to provide credentials (e.g., username and/or password) to authenticate to a network via the hotspot to gain network access.
Hotspot 2.0 from the WiFi Alliance is a technology that allows a UE to automatically select a hotspot and automatically authenticate the UE to a network via the hotspot to gain network access. However, the current implementation of Hotspot 2.0 may lead to a large amount of signaling traffic at key network nodes (e.g., an AP, an access controller (AC), an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) server, etc.). This has the potential of overloading these network nodes, causing these network nodes not to function correctly and consequently to block or deny access to legitimate authentication requests from other UEs.